Umbrellas are widely used to provide protection from the sun or other environmental elements, such as at a beach, park, lawn, or deck. The protection provided by an umbrella is desirable for several reasons, for example, relief from the sun or heat or to avoid sunburn. Since umbrellas are generally used outside, various mounting means have been employed to stabilize umbrellas during use. For example, various types of heavy bases have been designed to provide stabilization. Although heavy bases have been found to be useful for stationary umbrellas, these heavy bases are impractical for mobile umbrellas due to their weight. The weight of the bases makes it difficult for one to carry from one location to another, even if the bases are equipped with wheels.
Efforts have been made in developing mounting stands for mobile umbrellas that include configuring coolers with a receptacle to receive an umbrella pole such that the coolers function as the stabilizing base for the umbrella placed therein. However, most of these receptacles are permanently integrated within the cooler themselves, and therefore the receptacles are unable to be detached from the coolers when desired. The inability to detach the receptacles, thereby results in coolers having undesirable, complicated, or costly structural configurations. Further, the structural configurations of these coolers can also hinder one's access to the contents of the cooler because of the required positioning of the receptacle within the cooler itself, e.g., in the center of the cooler.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved umbrella mounts for coolers that are capable of ameliorating some or all of the foregoing disadvantages. In particular, it would be desirable to provide umbrella mounts that are easily portable and capable of being selectively attached to and detached from a cooler, when desired, without requiring the cooler to be undesirably structured. It would also be desirable for the umbrella mounts to be configured to mount to the cooler at a location such that the cooler, along with the detachable umbrella mount, effectively serve as a stabilizing base for an umbrella during use.